When Your HVAC Goes Kaput

Your HVAC system stops working, and it’s the middle of a swampy summer in Sarasota. With temperatures nearing the triple digits, and that classic Florida humidity seeping into your home, it’s only a matter of time before your cool and comfortable home turns into a sweltering sauna.

You call the Baker & Sons Air Conditioning team to schedule a quick fix for your HVAC system, but it’s going to be a little while before they can make it out to your home. So do you keep your home’s temperature under control in the meantime?

In this blog, we’ll discuss a few ways you can keep your home cool, even when your HVAC is down for the count.

Lower the blinds.

First thing is first—you need to keep the hot summer sun from raising the internal temperature of your home. If you have exposed windows in line with the sun, your home will experience a greenhouse effect, spiking your home’s temperature and eliminating any cool AC air that was built up in your home.

Change the direction of your ceiling fans.

Did you know you could change the direction of your ceiling fans? We didn’t either! (Just kidding, we did.) Because the blades of your ceiling fans are curved, they will push air up or down, depending on which way they’re spinning. Set your fans to counterclockwise, and you’re pushing hot air up and cool air down. Flip the switch to clockwise, and you get the opposite effect. Obviously, you don’t want the blades pushing hot air downward into the space you inhabit, so flip your fans to counterclockwise to keep things cool until the HVAC team arrives.

PRO TIP: to change the direction of your ceiling fans, simply flip the tiny switch that’s conveniently located near the center of the fan. Bet you 10 bucks you had no idea that switch existed—but it’s there.

Find a way to keep cool.

If you’ve lowered your blinds, changed the direction of your ceiling fans, and stripped down to your underpants, but you still can’t keep things cool in your home, then it’s time for more extreme methods of chilling out. Allow us to list a few ways that you can keep your home (and yourself) cool when the HVAC goes kaput:

Sit in a bathtub full of ice water

Drink an ice-cold beverage

Run through your sprinkler (kids and dogs love this one)

Apply a cold cloth to your neck and wrists

Put a large bowl of ice in front of a table fan

Invite a friend to hang out with you in a cool, air conditioned location

When times get toasty, you must be creative to keep yourself cool and comfortable. However, there’s a simple and easy way to keep your home cool: call the Sarasota HVAC specialists at Baker & Sons Air Conditioning. Our experienced technicians take care of HVAC installation, maintenance, tune-ups, and repairs, so your HVAC system works hard when you need it the most. Schedule a service today!